A probe card includes a circuit board and an integrated circuit (ic) test interface. The ic test interface includes a first probe assembly, disposed on a terminal of the circuit board, and a second probe assembly, disposed on another terminal of the circuit board, wherein the first probe assembly and the second probe assembly are separated to allow being independently assembled to, or disassembled from, the circuit board. Each of the first probe assembly and the second probe assembly includes a probe base, disposed on the circuit board; a plurality of needles, which are cantilever needles; and a covering layer, for covering the plurality of needles, and fixed on a surface of the probe base.
|
8. A probe card, comprising:
a circuit board, wherein a slot is formed on the circuit board; and
an ic test interface, comprising:
a reinforcement plate, disposed on the slot of the circuit board;
a first probe assembly is disposed on a first terminal of the circuit board and a terminal of the reinforcement plate, and
a second probe assembly is disposed on a second terminal of the circuit board and another terminal of the reinforcement plate.
1. A probe card, comprising:
a circuit board, wherein a slot is formed on the circuit board; and
an integrated circuit (ic) test interface, comprising:
a reinforcement plate, disposed on the slot of the circuit board;
a first probe assembly, disposed on a terminal of the circuit board and a terminal of the reinforcement plate, and
a second probe assembly, disposed on another terminal of the circuit board and another terminal of the reinforcement plate, wherein
the first probe assembly and the second probe assembly are separated to allow being independently assembled to or disassembled from the circuit board, and
each of the first probe assembly and the second probe assembly, comprising:
a probe base, disposed on the circuit board;
a plurality of needles, which are cantilever needles; and
a covering layer, for covering the plurality of needles, and fixed on a surface of the probe base.
2. The probe card of
3. The probe card of
4. The probe card of
5. The probe card of
6. The probe card of
at least one another slot is further formed on the circuit board,
the probe card further comprises at least one another ic test interface, disposed on the at least one slot of the circuit board, respectively; and
each of the at least one another ic test interface further comprises a reinforcement plate disposed on one of the at least one another slot of the circuit board, respectively, wherein
the first probe assembly is disposed on a terminal of the reinforcement plate, and
the second probe assembly is disposed on another terminal of the reinforcement plate.
7. The probe card of
9. The probe card of
10. The probe card of
a probe base, disposed on the circuit board;
a plurality of needles; and
a covering layer, for covering the plurality of needles, and fixed on a surface of the probe base.
11. The probe card of
12. The probe card of
the probe base of each of the first probe assembly and the second probe assembly comprises at least one second hole, corresponding to at least one first hole of the plurality of first holes of the circuit board, and
the each of the first probe assembly and the second probe assembly further comprises at least one screw, a terminal of each screw passes through a second hole of the probe base and a first hole of the circuit board, and another terminal hooked in the second hole of the probe base.
13. The probe card of
17. The probe card of
a probe base, disposed on the circuit board;
a plurality of needles; and
a covering layer, for covering the plurality of needles, and fixed on a surface of the probe base.
18. The probe card of
19. The probe card of
the probe base of each of the first probe assembly and the second probe assembly further comprises at least one second hole, corresponding to at least one first hole of the plurality of first holes of the reinforcement plate, and
the each of the first probe assembly and the second probe assembly further comprises at least one screw, a terminal of each screw passes through a second hole of the probe base and a first hole of the reinforcement plate, and another terminal hooked in the second hole of the probe base.
20. The probe card of
21. The probe card of
at least one another slot is further formed on the circuit board,
the probe card further comprises at least one another ic test interface, disposed on the at least one slot of the circuit board, respectively; and
each of the at least one another ic test interface further comprises a reinforcement plate, disposed on one of the at least one another slot of the circuit board, respectively, wherein
the first probe assembly is disposed on a terminal of the reinforcement plate, and
the second probe assembly is disposed on another terminal of the reinforcement plate.
22. The probe card of
24. The probe card of
a third probe assembly is disposed on a third terminal of the circuit board, and
a fourth probe assembly is disposed on a fourth terminal of the circuit board.
|
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/580,309, filed on Dec. 27, 2011 and entitled “Probe Card and Fabricating Method Thereof”, the contents of which are incorporated herein in their entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a probe card and fabricating method thereof, and more particularly, to a probe card and fabricating method thereof utilized for testing chips or probe assemblies of an integrated circuit product, which has advantages of reusability, rapid substitution and expansion.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, an integrated circuit (IC) product is obtained by sequentially ongoing IC design, semiconductor processing, and fabrication of the IC, etc. After completion of these procedures, a probe card is used to perform multi-probe processes by contacting bonding pads. Only the chips qualified in the test or repaired chips are entered into subsequent bonding and packaging processes, and the packaged chips must still undergo a final test for quality check by using the probe card, i.e., in the fabrication process of the IC product, needles of the probe card are used to transmit testing signals which are used for testing a device under test (DUT) (e.g. the chip or the IC product), to determine whether the DUT is damaged.
In the prior art, a fabricating method of the probe card is to simultaneously dispose required needles from low to high on a probe assembly used for fixing the needles according to a needle layer, to ensure maintaining a level for each needle. For example, please refer to
When performing the multi-probe processes, the probe card 10 can be used for testing the DUT to determine whether the DUT is damaged. However, since a majority of needles of the probe card 10 are disposed on the probe assembly 108 which is used for fixing the needles, when the majority of needles need to be scrapped after use, a user cannot change only the damaged needles to reuse the probe card 10 but needs to purchase a new probe card. In such a condition, the utilization cost increases, and does not facilitate efficient use of resources.
Therefore, how to improve the drawback of inefficient use of the conventional probe card has become a main goal in the industry.
The disclosure provides a probe card and a fabricating method thereof utilized for testing chips or probe assemblies of an integrated circuit product, which have advantages of reusability, rapid substitution and expansion.
In an aspect, a probe card is provided, including a circuit board and an integrated circuit test interface. The integrated circuit test interface includes a first probe assembly, disposed on a terminal of the circuit board, and a second probe assembly, disposed on another terminal of the circuit board, wherein the first probe assembly and the second probe assembly are separated to allow being independently assembled to, or disassembled from, the circuit board. Each of the first probe assembly and the second probe assembly includes a probe base, disposed on the circuit board; a plurality of needles, which are cantilever needles; and a covering layer, for covering the plurality of needles, and fixed on a surface of the probe base.
In another aspect, a probe card is disclosed, including a circuit board and an integrated circuit test interface. The integrated circuit test interface includes a first probe assembly, disposed on a first terminal of the circuit board, and a second probe assembly, disposed on a second terminal of the circuit board.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
Please refer to
Specifically, a slot can be formed, for example, on a center of the circuit board 200, and a plurality of first holes 200a can be formed, for example, in a neighbor area of the slot for fixing internal components of the IC test interface 202 via a plurality of screws 204. The IC test interface 202 can used for testing the chips and the IC product and can include a reinforcement plate 206 and probe assemblies 208, 210. Upper and lower sides of the reinforcement plate 206 can include a plurality of second holes 206a, 206b. The reinforcement plate 206 can be disposed on the slot of the center of the circuit board 200, for fixing the probe assemblies 208, 210. The probe assemblies 208, 210 can be respectively disposed on two relative terminals under the reinforcement plate 206 for transmitting the testing signals and returning the test results.
In other words, the probe assemblies 208, 210 are separated to allow being independently assembled to, or disassembled from, the reinforcement plate 206. Therefore, when the probe assembly 208 and/or the probe assembly 210 are consumed to be scrapped, the probe card 20 can be reused to perform testing by changing damaged probe assemblies (e.g. the probe assembly 208 and/or the probe assembly 210).
Note that,
In addition, it is noted that although the embodiment is shown with the probe assembly 208 and the probe assembly 210 separated from each other by a distance in space, the term “separated” in the disclosure does not necessarily mean “separated by a distance on the probe card”. For example, in some alternative embodiments, the probe assemblies can be touched, connected, or coupled whey they are fixed on the probe card, while they can be independently assembled to or/and disassembled from the probe card. In other words, “the probe assemblies are separated” in the disclosure can mean that the probe assemblies can be independently moved, or they can actually be separated, or they can be viewed as at least two parts, at least during the assembling and/or disassembling process. Therefore, any variation of the embodiments allowing at least one of the advantages is in the scope of the invention.
Furthermore, the probe bases 212, 218 can be made from materials with anti-electric leakage characteristics, such as a ceramic strengthening ring. The probe bases 212, 218 can not only be locked to the reinforcement plate 206 by the plurality of screws 224, 226 but also can be connected to the reinforcement plate 206 according to different processes. The covering layers 214, 220 can be made from thermosetting materials, such as epoxy resin. In addition, in the embodiment of the present invention, the plurality of needles 216 may be used as input pins, for inputting the testing signals, and the plurality of needles 222 may be used as output pins, for outputting the test results. In other embodiments, the plurality of needles 216, 222 can act as the input pins, the output pins or a combination of the input pins and the output pins, and horizontal differences of adjusting the plurality of needles 216, 222 can be adjusted by fixing the horizontal positions of the plurality of needles 222, so as to horizontally adjust the plurality of needles 216. The reason is that the number of needles (the plurality of needles 222) of an output terminal is larger than the number of needles (the plurality of needles 216) of an input terminal, and thus it is more likely to fix the horizontal positions of the needles of the output terminal to horizontally adjust the needles of the input terminal. However, the user can also fix the horizontal positions of the plurality of needles 216, so as to horizontally adjust the plurality of needles 222. These or other derivative applications are known to those skilled in the art.
Fabricating and assembling methods of the embodiment of the probe card 20 shown in
First, as shown in
Then, as shown in
Note that,
To sum up, in the above different embodiments, the probe assemblies 208, 210 both can be independently fabricated and respectively disposed on the relative two terminals under the circuit board 200. Besides, one or two of the probe assemblies 208 and 210 can be disassembled by loosening the plurality of nuts 228 or/and 230 and desoldering the plurality of needles 216 or/and 222 which are soldered to the circuit board 200. Therefore, when the consumed probe assemblies are to be scrapped, the probe card can be reused to perform testing by changing the damaged probe assemblies without changing all of the probe assemblies
On the other hand, in
Note that,
In the prior art, the fabricating method of the probe card is to simultaneously dispose all of the needles from low to high on a single probe assembly used for fixing the needles according to the needle layer. Thus, in the process of performing wafer and production testing for the conventional probe card, when the consumed needles are to be scrapped, the user needs to change the entire set of the probe card to perform testing. In comparison, the embodiments disclose a probe card with multiple probe assemblies that can be independently assembled, disassembled and even independently designed and fabricated. Therefore, when the consumed needles are to be scrapped, the user only needs to change the damaged probe assemblies to perform testing again without changing the entire set of the probe card, so as to reduce the utilization cost.
To sum up, the probe assemblies of the embodiments are separated, and can be independently assembled or disassembled. Therefore, when the majority of needles of the probe assemblies are consumed, the user only needs to change the damaged probe assemblies to perform testing without changing the entire set of the probe card, so as to reduce the utilization cost and allow the probe card to have reusability.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.
Tsai, Chun-Yen, Hsueh, Nien-Tsung
Patent | Priority | Assignee | Title |
Patent | Priority | Assignee | Title |
5825192, | Jul 14 1995 | Tokyo Electron Limited | Probe card device used in probing apparatus |
7301326, | Jul 13 2004 | inTest Corporation | Modular interface |
20100019787, | |||
CN101930016, | |||
CN201382962, | |||
JP1090305, | |||
JP1090306, | |||
JP1183901, | |||
JP2007292469, | |||
JP2008175656, | |||
JP20083023, | |||
JP2009139169, | |||
JP4365344, | |||
JP63151041, | |||
JP798330, | |||
KR1020060078907, | |||
TW200937028, | |||
TW201100811, |
Executed on | Assignor | Assignee | Conveyance | Frame | Reel | Doc |
Jun 04 2012 | TSAI, CHUN-YEN | Novatek Microelectronics Corp | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 028801 | /0004 | |
Jun 04 2012 | HSUEH, NIEN-TSUNG | Novatek Microelectronics Corp | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 028801 | /0004 | |
Aug 16 2012 | Novatek Microelectronics Corp. | (assignment on the face of the patent) | / |
Date | Maintenance Fee Events |
Aug 22 2019 | M1551: Payment of Maintenance Fee, 4th Year, Large Entity. |
Aug 23 2023 | M1552: Payment of Maintenance Fee, 8th Year, Large Entity. |
Date | Maintenance Schedule |
Mar 08 2019 | 4 years fee payment window open |
Sep 08 2019 | 6 months grace period start (w surcharge) |
Mar 08 2020 | patent expiry (for year 4) |
Mar 08 2022 | 2 years to revive unintentionally abandoned end. (for year 4) |
Mar 08 2023 | 8 years fee payment window open |
Sep 08 2023 | 6 months grace period start (w surcharge) |
Mar 08 2024 | patent expiry (for year 8) |
Mar 08 2026 | 2 years to revive unintentionally abandoned end. (for year 8) |
Mar 08 2027 | 12 years fee payment window open |
Sep 08 2027 | 6 months grace period start (w surcharge) |
Mar 08 2028 | patent expiry (for year 12) |
Mar 08 2030 | 2 years to revive unintentionally abandoned end. (for year 12) |